British, French May Bridge Gap

LONDON — Britain announced Thursday that six groups of companies have submitted proposals for a multibillion-dollar, 30-mile tunnel or bridge to link Britain and France across the English Channel.

Officials of the two countries are expected to choose among the proposals by mid-January. The tunnel or bridge is expected to be the biggest construction project in Europe this century, with work beginning in 1987 and scheduled for completion by 1992 or 1993.

Midnight Thursday was the deadline for submitting bids. At midafternoon, Transport Minister Nicholas Ridley said he had received six bids: three involving bridges, two a highway and rail link and one a twin-bore rail tunnel.

Noting that various schemes for building a channel link have been advanced for more than a century, Ridley said: ``I believe it is now within our grasp to complete this great enterprise.``

Cost estimates have ranged from $2.5 billion to more than $10 billion. The project will be privately financed; both governments have refused to contribute or provide financial guarantees.

The project is expected to face stiff opposition from environmental groups, some residents of coastal communities in France and England and operators of the $1 billion-a-year channel ferry business.

But the two governments appear to be enthusiastic about the project and it is likely to proceed.

Advocates say it will create up to 75,000 jobs during the peak construction period; serve as a symbol of constructive partnership between Britain and France, whose relations have sometimes been strained in recent years; and end Britain`s geographical isolation from continental Europe.

Sixty percent of Britain`s trade takes place with other nations of the European Common Market; a channel link can only serve to improve the free movement of trade in Europe, the promoters said.

But concerns have been expressed that the link would be an inviting target for international terrorists.

There are also unanswered questions such as how to keep Britain rabies-free in a situation in which animals could jump or be dumped from cars; which side of the road cars would drive on (left as in Britain, or right as in France); and how to provide ventilation in a 30-mile long tunnel.

Consultants will consider these and other questions, study the bids and report to the two governments shortly before Christmas, Ridley said.

He said he also wants to give the public a chance to be heard, but warned: ``We are in danger of indulging in a long period of examination and reappraisal that could have the effect of driving the promoters and financers away.``

There have been unconfirmed reports that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher favors a proposal by a French-British consortium called EuroRoute for a combined bridge and tunnel link. Road bridges and rail tunnels would be built from each coast to artificial islands several miles offshore. There would then be an auto and rail tunnel connecting the two islands.

The scheme is believed to be the most expensive alternative put forward.

London bankers are said to favor a cheaper arrangement providing for a twin-bore rail tunnel that would carry passengers and cars aboard trains under the channel. It would have a capacity of 3,600 cars an hour in each direction, and rail passengers could get from London to Paris in 4 hours and 20 minutes. The current train journey, with channel crossing by ferry, takes about nine hours.

The Royal Automobile Club, without endorsing any specific proposal, said the most efficient scheme would be one that permitted vehicles to be driven across the channel without the need to transfer from road to rail link.